May 29, 2018

Biblical law advocate spends big to re-elect ‘Putin’s favorite congressman’

https://thinkprogress.org/biblical-law-advocate-spends-big-to-re-elect-putins-favorite-congressman/
"Howard Fieldstead Ahmanson Jr., the controversial advocate for strict biblical law and heir to a savings-and-loan fortune worth hundreds of millions, has already given the legal maximum to the re-election campaign of embattled Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA). And more than 20 years after landing in hot water for helping a Rohrabacher protege game the political system, Ahmanson has opted to circumvent campaign donation limits by making tens of thousands of dollars in “independent expenditures” to help his re-election. Rohrabacher, a former Reagan aide, has represented southern California in Congress since 1989. In recent years, he has earned notoriety for his close ties with Vladimir Putin’s Russian regime, earning the nickname “Putin’s favorite congressman” and his own Kremlin code name. House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) was even recorded in 2016 saying that he believe his fellow California Republican was on Putin’s payroll. The far-right Rohrabacher has expressed outrage that homeless people in Orange County might be given a place to sleep, denounced constituents urging him to hold a town hall as “enemies of American self-government and democracy,” suggested that climate change might be caused by “dinosaur flatulence,” and warned that white people would “lose our freedom” if the DREAM Act passed."